During an interview session involving Texas A&M women’s basketball coach Gary Blair following his Aggies’ 95-61 victory over Colorado in Boulder, Blair made a great point that gives further evidence that the Big 12 Conference is the nation’s best in women’s hoops.

“This is a league that no coaches leave (for other conferences),” Blair said.

I thought about that. He’s right. In recent years, Texas Tech coach Kristy Curry (Purdue) came from the Big Ten, Texas’ Gail Goestenkors (Duke) switched from the ACC and Kansas’ Bonnie Hendrickson (Virginia Tech) arrived from the Big East/ACC.

Curry and Goestenkors each left arguably the best program in their former conference.

“Everybody else comes to this league because of the quality of play, because of the fan base and because of the recruiting base,” Blair said.

Not many Big 12 men’s coaches have left for jobs in other leagues, either. But some notable exceptions have been Roy Williams going from Kansas to North Carolina, Kelvin Sampson from Oklahoma to Indiana, Bob Huggins from Kansas State to West Virginia and Billy Gillispie from Texas A&M to Kentucky.

The few and the brave longtime Colorado State men’s basketball followers will recall Buzz Williams, the recruiting dynamo of an assistant, who brought a pipeline of Texas talent to Fort Collins.

Not coincidentally, much of that Texas talent moved on, after Williams started climbing the coaching ladder.

First, he helped Billy Gillispie turn Texas A&M from a Big 12 doormat to an NCAA contender. He took a head coaching job at New Orleans, made it an instant Sun Belt competitor. After a year he bolted to Marquette citing post-Katrina facility issues.

Turns out, Williams can recruit more than Texas. Jersey City, N.J., St. Anthony standout Tyshawn Taylor told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the only way he wouldn’t withdraw his request for a scholarship release is if Williams succeeds new Indiana coach Tom Crean at the Big East school.

Williams’ voice mail box was naturally full Wednesday morning. So a text exchange followed. He said he’ll go to Indiana if he doesn’t get the top job at Marquette and meanwhile “pray 4my wife + kids” facing the prospect of another yet another move.
Just a week ago, his name was linked as an outside shot for the TCU job. While he was still at New Orleans, Williams was very interested in last spring’s CSU vacancy. ….

Former CSU turned Liberty coaches Dale Layer and Ritchie McKay, have a letter-of-intent from Seth Curry a 6-0 guard who is the younger brother of NCAA Tournament sensation Stephen Curry of Davidson.

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Looks like CSU isn’t the only college in the area firing coaches. The difference between Pam Tanner’s release at Denver and Jen Warden’s dismissal last week in Fort Collins? Tanner, like Layer a year ago, showed nothing but class with a prepared statement praising the institution and wishing the school well.

Warden, who gets paid for five years for just five regular season conference wins in three seasons (one fewer than Tanner had this past season) made herself unavailable for comment, and when she inadvertently answered a call offered “no comment” to a variety of questions.

Oh yes, the message on Warden’s cell phone is “I can’t wait to talk to you.”

Some might say the offensive display put on by the Buffaloes during their first scrimmage of fall camp on Sunday deserves an asterisk. Yes, much of the 609 yards in total offense was produced by the first-team offense against the second-team defense, but I’ve always been in favor of that.

It’s important to give the offense confidence at this point. Defense is more read-and-react. Offense requires timing and confidence. Success, even from a scrimmage, breeds confidence.

Back in the mid-1980s, before Bill Snyder arrived to coach Kansas State, the Wildcats became even more of a national laughingstock after word got out that the offense failed to score in the spring game. Imagine going into a season with zero momentum.Read more…